Six months in ten seconds
by Jed Rhodes
Summary: Sequel to Dr John Smith, DADA Teacher. A series of oneshots, chronicling Hermione Grangers time with the Doctor. HP crossover. Complete.
1. Start

Hermione jumped into the TARDIS.

"So," the Doctor said, still grinning. "Where to first?"

"Anywhere," said Hermione, shocked that this was REALLY HAPPENING.

"Anywhere?" said the Doctor, mild admonishment in his voice. "Oh, come on Hermione! There must be somewhere you really really want to go!"

She thought for a moment.

"Egypt," she decided. "Egypt in the time of the Pyramids."

"Oh, how marvellous," came a sarcastic voice from the side of the console room. "Blood, sand, and Osirians."

The Master, wearing a simple dark t-shirt and darker jeans, was leaning against a wall, a bored look on his face.

"Do you mind?" said the Doctor. "I could've just let Jack shoot you, you know."

"Ok, ok sorry!" said the Master, holding his hands up in surrender. Hermione noticed he was wearing a bracelet.

"What's that for?" she asked.

"This?" said the Master. "Oh, a little trick of the Doctors. Keeps me from doing anyone any harm. He let me keep my screwdriver though."

He illustrated the point by bringing his laser screwdriver outof his pocket.

Hermione turned to the Doctor.

"How long 'til we're there?" she asked, eager to get on with her adventuring.

"Couple of hours. It is pretty far back," replied the Doctor. "You should probably get somethng a bit more... 'Egypt Friendly', on."

Hermione looked at her school uniform.

"Oh... right, I see what you mean."

"Master, take her to the wardrobe, will you?" asked the Doctor politely. The Master shrugged, then went through a door, leaving Hermione to follow.

As she walked, she grinned. She was a time traveller. Well, again, but she hardly thought there was any comparison between her Time Turner third year and travelling with two immortal time lords to ancient Egypt.

She could hardly wait.


	2. Dockyards of New York

All was quiet in the world, quiet and still. The New York dockyard was snowed under, and any staff that might have been there would surely be dressed up warm. As it happens, there was only one human there, in the dockyard, running for her life alngside two Time Lords.

The human was Hermione Granger, a genius trainee witch one week into her travels with the Doctor, one of the Time Lords. The other Time Lord was called the Master, a former enemy of the Doctor's who now travelled with him. /p>

If anyone had been watching from a distance, they would have also seen the twenty or so steel men chasing them. They were the Cybermen, and Hermione had only just been rescued from being converted into one.

The same theoretical observer would have seen Hermione take a wooden rod out of her jacket pocket, aim it at the Cybermen, and yell out an incantation. The Cybermen would have been seen to be scattered by a bolt of yellow light, and the trio run away, and enter a blue box.

The observer, had there been one, would then have died as the entire dockyard exploded.

---------------------------------------------------------

Hermione flopped down onto the chair in the console room, catching her breath.

The Doctor was at the console, and the Master was standing at the other side of it, exausted.

Hermione finally caught her breath, and turned slowly to the Master.

She spoke quite clearly, in a voice that showed her annoyance plainly.

"Remind me never to let you pick our destination again." 


	3. Iris Wildthyme

The TARDIS materialised.

Hermione stepped out first, followed by the Doctor.

"Are you sure the time trace came from here?" she asked.

"Well, either that or the TARDIS is playing a joke on me," he replied.

He looked up.

They were in a regular old field, unremarkable, boring, except for one fact.

A double decker bus sat in the dead centre.

The Doctor gaped at it.

"What's a routemaster doing here?" asked Hermione.

"It couldn't be..." the Doctor said.

The door to the routemaster opened, and a twenty something woman stepped out, smiling at the Doctor.

"It is," he said, mixed joy and dread creeping into his voice.

"Doctor!" the woman called out.

He walked slowly to the bus, Hermione following.

When he stood directly in front of the woman, she frowned.

"Well, aren't you going to say something?" she asked.

He stood there for a moment longer, then hugged her.

"Well!" she said, as they broke apart, "that was hardly the reception I was expecting!"

He smiled at her, and turned to Hermione.

"This, Hermione, is Iris Wildthyme, my -"

He turned to Iris.

"-old Flame?"

Iris smiled.

"Not so old, Doctor," she said.

Hermione stared for a moment, and walked back to the TARDIS, leaving the Doctor and Iris to catch up.

* * *

Inside, the Master looked dumbfounded.

"What?" he asked.

"Have you ever heard of Iris Wildthyme?" she asked.

He nodded.

"The Doctor's one and only proper girlfriend. And by proper, I mean the only he'll ever admit to, apart from his wife."

"Wife?" said Hermione.

The Master smiled.

"He's one thousand, one hundred and three, I think it's safe to say he's had a few women in that regard."

Hermione gaped.

"He - he doesn't..."

"Doesn't seem the type to have girlfriends?" smirked the Master. "Believe me, all the 'Celibet' stuff is a front. He's had more women than Captain Kirk."

Hermione sat down, deciding (wisely) to not think about it.

* * *

An hour later, the Doctor came in, a blissful smile on his face.

"Iris Wildthyme. Shoulda known she's still be around."

He took a breath, and flicked a switch, setting them on their way.

"What took you so long?" asked the Master innocently. Hermione glared at him.

"Nothing, absolutely nothing, nothing whatsoever," said the Doctor, blushing slightly.

He wisely decided not to reveal that Iris had kissed him goodbye. He had a reputation to uphold, after all.

He decided to go and see the one man that would take the others minds off his tangled love life. He set a course for Cardiff.


	4. Not so big secrets

**On the planet new Earth, having taken a wrong turn, the Doctor is witnessing the end of the Face of Boe...**

* * *

"I have one final secret for you, Doctor..."

"Yes, Face?"

"You... are... not... alone..."

The Face of Boe died.

The Doctor stood solemmly, then headed back to the TARDIS.

* * *

"What did he have to say?" asked the Master. "Anything important?"

The Doctor flicked a switch, and looked at the Master and Hermione, who were staring at him expectantly.

"Nah," he said at last. "Heard it all before."


	5. The Secret Prisoner

The Doctor was working at the console when the bell sounded. he closed his eyes and sighed - it was that time of the decade again.

"Master," he called out across the console room, "watch that Hermione doesn't follow me when she wakes up, will you?"

The Master looked up at him. He had told his one time enemy about his... prisoner, some time ago,and to the Master's credit, he had promised to always help when he could. That included keeping Hermione away from the prisoners room when visiting time came around.

The old Eye of Harmony room was completely pointless now that Gallifrey was gone. No power came anymore, because the source was little more than a bunch of atoms scattered across what was once the Kasterborous constellation.

The Doctor watched the old eye for a moment, and sighed. He then pressed the button to open it.

Almost immediately, a voice spoke out.

**"Doctor."**

"Hello, there."

The Doctor stepped backwards slightly.

"Are you ok?"

**"I'm a copy of the real thing. The ghost in the machine. Would you be alright? Even worse, I can sense him close by..."**

"He travels with me."

**"Not through choice I trust?"**

"No," said the Doctor. "I made him."

**"You sound almost like me... then again, from what I can sense from his mind, he's almost like you now..."**

"That's a bit of an exaggeration."

**"I doubt that. Saving worlds, helping you out, not even killing anymore..."**

"Only because I don't let him."

**"And now you're defending him. But still, he's beside the point, isn't he, Doctor."**

"Eh?"

**"You're thinking now that, if one Master can be redeemed, why can't the other?"**

"Do you want to be redeemed?"

**"No."**

"Then you don't have to be. You can just stay here."

**"Or I can escape."**

The Doctor stepped further back.

"You can't."

**"You're female companion. Her 'magic,' as it is known. I've been absorbing the excess for months."**

The Doctor stood even further back, edging towards the button that would shut the Eye.

**"I used her power to restore my own..."**

The Doctor pressed the button, and the Eye closed. He sighed in relief.

"... and I'm not trapped in there anymore."

The Doctor spun, but before he could do anything, the Master, or rather _a_ Master, felled him with a blow to the neck.

"Disappointing, old friend," muttered the Master. "I expected better."

He stalked off, heading for the console room.

------------------------------------------------

The Master looked up, to see a disturbingly familiar face.

"Oh no..."

"Oh yeah, wimp!!" yelled the other Master.

The real Master went for the Laser Screwdriver in his pocket, but the other Master was quicker, rushing across the room and into the storage cupboard.

"NO!" yelled the real Master... his TARDIS was in there!

He flung the door open, to see his beloved Grandfather Clock vanishing...

"What's all the yelling about?" asked a soft, tired voice from behind him.

Hermione stood, gaping at the Master, whose fury was more then evident.

"A very old prisoner just escaped," came another voice, before the Master could respond.

The Doctor, looking worse for wear, staggered out of the Eye of Harmony room.

"Prisoner?" repeated Hermione surprised. "I didn't know you kept prisoners."

"One," said the Master. "Only ever just the one."

"He took your TARDIS?" asked the Doctor, his tone of voice sympathetic.

"Yes," muttered the Master tonelessly.

"I'm sorry -" the Doctor began, but the Master was already at the console, banging in co-ordinates.

"Where are we going?" asked Hermione, still confused.

"After him, if the Doctor doesn't mind," replied the Master, not looking up.

"I don't mind at all," said the Doctor grimly. "We've gotta find 'im, and that TARDIS, before he does real damage."

--------------------------------

**To be continued in "The Two Master's."**


	6. Free at last

The Master – the echo of the Master that had been trapped in the Eye of Harmony for so long – was standing on top of a hill waiting for the Doctor. When the blue box materialised behind him, he wasn't surprised.

The Doctor stood behind him.

"Hello," he said. "Shall we get on with this?"

The Master turned to face the Doctor. The other Time Lord widened his eyes in shock.

The Master was slowly fading away, and was already half transparent.

"What's happening to you?" the Doctor asked, horrified.

"I obviously didn't think my escape through hard enough," the Master joked. He sensed the other Master – or rather the weakling who dared go by that name – inside the Doctor's TARDIS. "I'm dissolutioning. To tell you the truth, I'm sick of life, Doctor. I'm free – and if that means I have to die, then so be it."

"There must be something we can do," the Doctor insisted. The Master smiled. He felt his atoms sliding apart.

"Nothing Doctor," the Master replied. "I'm free, that's all that matters."

Then he felt himself go… his atoms danced on the breeze… and he felt his consciousness fly away with it… it was finally, truly over…

--

Inside the TARDIS, after the Master had made sure his TARDIS was back in the cupboard where it belonged, Hermione came to a decision.

"Doctor," she said. "I want to go back."

The Doctor looked up, and his eyes were full of shock.

"I'm sorry," she said, "but… I've got a future there, and friends. I don't want to leave them forever."

The Doctor smiled, and nodded, then set the controls.

--

It took half an hour, relatively speaking, from where the TARDIS had been before, to get to where it was heading. In that time, the Doctor and Hermione talked, they laughed, they cried. The Doctor also told Hermione the Master's real name.

When they finally got there, they were both grinning. It wasn't a tearful farewell. It was just a see-you-later.

"Bye Koschei!" Hermione laughed, as she went outside.

"My name is the Master!" he yelled back, grumpily. He would have revealed the Doctor's real name, but then the Doctor would have killed him – well, overstatement, but it wouldn't have been a pretty sight.

Outside, the Doctor left Hermione with the boys. Judging from their faces, she'd just left.

"Like I said, ten seconds!" the Doctor grinned, before going inside.

He walked over to the console, and set them off again.

"Now what?" the Master asked. Before the Doctor could answer, a beeping came from the console. The Doctor checked it, and frowned.

"Stattenheim summoner," the Doctor said. "Harry must be in trouble."

He reset the co-ordinates, and the TARDIS landed. He went outside.

The Master watched him go out, and when he left, he rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Here we go again," he said.


End file.
